Jesus was the most independent person on Earth. He was also 100% dependent on God.

How can this be? How can this contradiction exist?

Jesus put himself 100% into God’s hands, letting God, through the power of his Holy Spirit, work through him. The amazing things that Jesus accomplished, the amazing words that he spoke, were not his accomplishments, were not his words: They were God’s.

But God could not have acted or spoken through Jesus unless Jesus had given him permission to do so.

This was Jesus’ independence and free will in action.  Instead of using his independence to rob a gas bar or rape a woman or manipulate the stock market or lord over people, Jesus used his independence and free will to put himself entirely into God’s hands.

You can tell how much someone has put him- or herself into God’s hands by that person’s actions and words. Even so, some people are good at public displays of goodness and even godliness, though in private they are quite the opposite. They may fool most people, but they cannot fool God. Jesus warned us about these people – these hypocrites – and they still walk among us today. They are all around us, parroting the latest slogans of how to be “good” and how to put others’ needs ahead of our own. They parrot others’ words because that’s what they are – human parrots, unthinking, reactionary, repeating only what they’ve heard, and forcing others to repeat it.

Jesus was by far the most independent person who ever walked the Earth, and his Kingdom, which he established nearly 2000 years ago, remains the only truly independent realm. He maintained his independence even while remaining 100% under God’s authority. It is a great mystery to those who don’t know God, how one can be supremely independent and at the same time entirely and willingly under God’s authority, but it is no mystery to those who love God and follow Jesus.

Remember who is your God. Remember who is your leader. If you repeat anything, repeat God’s Word. Put yourself entirely into God’s hands and let his Spirit work through you, let his Word speak through you. Leave no room for the world or its words.

Then you will go in peace.